The title will make sense if you watch the film, I swear. Elizabeth Olsen delivers a great performance that will stay with you for a while. It's an odd little film about a woman running away from a cult, but one I enjoyed. If you rent the movie, make sure to watch the short film included.

Based on the Edgar Rice Burrough's novel Princess of Mars I found this movie to be fun and entertaining. I was a bit impressed with how the Friday Night Light's actor Taylor (whatever) handled the lead role. Well worth seeing this on the big screen. I felt it did drag a bit in the middle but was pleased with the CGI and action sequences. You can clearly see how Lucas is among the biggest plagiarists that has worked in the business. I enjoy Star Wars it's just plain that ERB's John Carter was one of a few sources Lucas used when whipping up his Saga.

With that I've got an unbroken line of Best Picture winners running back more than twenty years, and I've seen close to 75% of the total. I was a little skeptical going into this, because the whole "deconstruction of the surburban family" has become so tired these days (though I'm also planning to finally see Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road soon, which carries the extra cliche bonus of being set in the 1950s) - it's almost revolutionary in literary circles to suggest that maybe the average family is not, on the whole, deeply dysfunctional. But the movie won me over, between the strong performances, quotable lines, and, in the end, an outlook that's more than just misanthropic.

This past Friday, I decided to see a movie before my shift started, and settled for FwK because it would end in time for me to get on the clock & work and it has Jon Hamm in it, who I like from Mad Men.

Pretty good story, which focusses on three couples - the tolerant, lovin' couple with kids, the passionately lovin' couple that gets a kid, and the two best friends who decide to have a kid together, without committin' to one another.

Some good laughs, and a bit of a zig when ya expect a zag, but eventually there's a happy endin'.

And Edward Burns shows up...pretty sure he's under contract to appear in every movie that films in NYC, isn't he?

After the movie, it was nothin' but work & sleep - logged thirty-two hours in three days.

There was a plan to see Silent House tonight, but that fell through. May see John Carter before my shift on Tuesday...

It's probably best described as a "feel good" film, but for me it was a bit too much that (and when they tried to show a little conflict near the end, it wasn't very believable).
But Bullock was good and there were a nice number of funny moments to make it more enjoyable.

What more can be said about these films? It's been a little while since I've seen them, and they were still simple, well-made fun, pulpy sf movies. Here I was watching the fan-made "de-specialized" versions; a friend downloaded them off the internet and burned them to a disc. Not bad, given the source elements. A shame Lucas just won't release the damned things on Blu-Ray. I'd get them.

Last summer, I started to watch The Lincoln Lawyer while my sister had an appointment, but missed the beginnin' & the second half of it. Finally got around to watchin' it today, via my friends' Netflix account.

I especially like William H Macy's investigator.

Followed that up with the Gabriel Iglesias stand-up special. Austin has a comedy radio station that plays bits of a variety of comics, and I've been laughin' at some of his stuff. His special was pretty good, too.

Other than those two, I've just been usin' Netflix for episodes of Life and Wolverine and the X-Men...

This film is really fantastic. It may lack a big budget, but it more than makes up for it in imagination.
It was written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Dave McKean (who made the Sandman comic covers) and it actually feels like it could be an untold story from Sandman.

63. The Human Contract: (✩✩✩✩) - DVD - After 10 Items or Less, I wanted to see something else with Paz Vega and found this. It's about Julian, an advertising executive who's under pressure to get a multi-billion dollar contract, who meets a well off free-spirited woman played by Vega. I don't want to spoil any twists, so I'll just say that this was written and directed by Jada Pinkett Smith and deals with a subject matter that she and Will Smith have dealt with in their own lives. In fact, Jada actually wrote Paz's role for herself. This movie didn't score high, but I enjoyed it and found it to be a pretty good first effort for Pinkett Smith. And if you like Paz Vega, check this one out.

64. The Craigslist Killer: (✩✩✩) - TV - A Lifetime TV movie about Philip Markoff, the engaged medical school student who seemed to have it all, but had a secret life where he'd find women on Craigslist, meet with them and rob them. Then one day, things go too far and he accidentally kills one of them. It's what you've expect from Lifetime, but it was engaging and fun to watch.

65. Life As We Know It: (✩✩✩½) - DVD - A young couple dies in a car accident and leaves their baby to be looked after by their best friends played by Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. One problem though... They aren't a couple and don't even like eachother, but have to put aside their differences to raise the baby together in the big house that was also left behind. I don't know if such an arrangement is possible in real life, but the movie did an alright job of bringing everything together to make it somewhat believable. In the end, I quite liked this one. It deals with heavy subject matter, but still manages to make you forget the bad stuff and enjoy the lighter more comedic side of things. It also makes raising a kid with Katherine Heigl quite appealing.

66. She's the Man: (✩✩✩) - TV - Amanda Bynes stars as a girl who's good at soccer and wants to play, so she poses as her brother at his new boarding school after he skips and takes off to Europe. Wacky hijinks ensue as she excels at soccer and tries to keep her secret. Typical teen comedy fare, but it was fun to watch Bynes play a guy.

67. Witchslayer Gretl: (✩½) - TV - A really bad TV movie I only watched to see Shannen Doherty. It's about a man/woman duo that hunts witches in the middle ages. Shannen plays Gretl, but she's not the lead or even one of the main duo, making this an oddly titled movie.

68. The Adjustment Bureau: (✩✩✩✩) - DVD - Matt Damon plays a polititian who meets and falls for an attractive woman played by Emily Blunt. Unfortunately, an organization of supernatural beings, who believe that they're responsible for keeping others' lives on the correct path, are trying to keep them apart. It's a basic Hollywood love story, but the Adjustment Bureau and what they can do is quite fascinating, making this a compelling movie. Obama didn't seem to like it, so I went in with a bit of caution. Loved it though. I posted a few thoughts in this thread.

First up, John Carter, which I liked quite a bit. It was a fun adventure story with some good effects. Made me wish I had my sister's boys with me while watchin' it, 'cause I think they would have liked it, too.

The "don't talk in the theater" PSA was from Taylor Kitsch himself, where he says he'll just rip someone's throat out & drag the body out of the theater if they talk durin' one of his movies.

I am plannin' to see John Carter again, but in 3D, when I get some time off.

Second movie of the day was Silent House starrin' Elizabeth Olsen. As with Martha Marcy May Marlene, she carries this movie...and it was actually pretty good, 'til the last ten minutes of it.

And then the whole damn thing fell apart, and I hate it when movies do that.

69. Young Adult: (✩✩✩½) - On Demand - Directed by Jason Reitman, written by Diablo Cody and starring Charlize Theron as a 37 year old divorced writer who returns to her home town to try and rekindle things with her married ex. The movie is highly rated, but I found it boring. It only gets better at the end. I would have given it two stars but Charlize Theron, who's the epitome of class and beauty does a fantastic job playing a woman who drinks, eats junk and doesn't have her act together. The movie's title has a double meaning... 1) Theron's character is a writer of young adult books and 2) she's not a full adult herself.

I've seen Paz Vega in two movies and she was indeed striking. She was in Triage, as Colin Farrell's wife/Christopher Lee's granddaughter. It was a good performance and she was certainly attractive, but it wasn't the lead. She shared lead with Simon Baker in a thriller called Not Forgotten. She was nicely theatrical in that one, but I don't think Sarah Bernhardt could really have sold that character.

John Carter was fairly entertaining. There is a really bungled up wrap-around story, which gives us about four starts to the movie. That's worse than four false ending, by far. Poor old Bryan Cranston has the thankless role playing the Yankee antagonist in Carter's stupid backstory. This was apparently added to give the hero requisite baggage and add an element of reluctant hero, even redemption, to the story line. Just being on another planet should make someone a reluctant hero, it being perfectly sensible to get into what you don't understand. As for needing redemption, being a Confederate provides enough need for redemption without any witless drivel about evil Yankees burning your wife and child alive, which is what the idiot backstory implies.

There is also a basic problem with airplanes and other advanced tech combined with swords and muskets. Plus, we know Mars isn't someplace a man can breathe. Willing suspension of disbelief can be hard to come by, but SF fans are usually desparate, and the Edgar Rice Burroughs nostalgie factor helps.

Taylor Kitsch seems like a man who really would try to help someone in danger right before their eyes, which is all this movie needs from John Carter. He is the butt of enough humor to take some of the edge off the Mighty Whitey trope (and again, the ERB nostalgie factor helps, unfair though this might be.) Lynn Collins is quite fetching. Mark Strong has the hapless task of representing the pointlessly evil villains.

I think overall the best way to think of this is that someone for once tried to make a sow's ear into a wallet, instead of a silk purse. That may be damning with faint praise, but this was better than movies like Thor, Green Lantern (which I thought unengaging but not a bit awful,) X-Men (pick any sequel,) Transformer movies, etc.

Mendes vs. The Suburbs, Round 2: Fifties Edition (or, alternatively, Part 1 of Leonardo DiCaprio's Crazy Dead Wife Trilogy). In which Jack and Rose reunite in a decidedly less optimistic setting (and considering their earlier setting saw a few thousand people die, that's saying something). Winslet and DiCaprio have aged a decade or so (though in Leo's case, of course, he's still got that boyish look) and are even better actors than they were on the their first pairing together. Winslet is better here than the film she won the Oscar for the same year; DiCaprio should have been nominated, but then, that's been the case a number of times. The scenario the film presents is impressively complex, and it's hard to say precisely how things should have been done differently (well, April should definitely have gone to therapy).

71. Middle Men: (✩✩✩✩) - DVD - Fictionalized, but based on a true story... Luke Wilson stars as a family man who joins with two guys to build a billing company that caters to porn sites. Pretty soon, he finds himself in over his head with murder, wealth, the Russian mob, the FBI and a porn star. Great story, well acted, entertaining and funny.

72. The Rebound: (✩✩) - On Demand - Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as a 40 year old mom who leaves her cheating husband and starts a relationship with a 24 year ood guy. I can see why this movie didn't get a wide release and has been delayed on DVD. It's pretty bad. It's unpolished and tries to be funny but the humor is pretty awkward. Jones is as striking as ever, but that's about it.

73. The Descendants: (✩✩✩✩) - On Demand - George Clooney stars as a man who has to deal with his two daughters, a real estate empire, a comatose wife who has to be taken off life support, and the guy she was having an affair with. As I started watching, I thought the movie was overrated, but it grew on me and I came to like it. It had a lot of heart and wasn't totally predictable. It didn't wow me as much as last year's Up in the Air, but this was still pretty good. Shailene Woodley, who I've been watching for years on The Secret Life of the American Teenager really stole the show as his unruly daughter. It's nice to see her profile rising.

I have never read the books this was based on (I have to do that when I find the time), but I enjoyed this film a lot. That's how you do a big budget, effects spectacle.
I think it could have done without Strong's character, but if there is going to be a sequel they can develop him more.

Had passes to see 21 Jump Street for free last night. Guessin' the crowd wasn't too bad because it opened durin' the film portion of South by Southwest. My friend Maeby came out & saw it with me, and we both enjoyed it.

While the premise of the show wasn't about bein' a comedy, the movie takes that route, and pokes fun at itself along the way for doin' so. And the cameos by Johnny Depp & Peter DeLuise make the whole thing worthwhile.

As for the latest from Will Ferrell, the Spanish-speakin' comedy is over the top silly, and the whole story is there in the trailer. So, if ya like Will Ferrell and subtitles, go check it out.

Was hopin' to see Battle Royale tonight, but the show already sold out. Gotta come up with a new plan...

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story: As a former political science major, the name Lee Atwater was familiar to me, but 21 years after his death it seems that his political legacy, rather than his name, is what lives on. This documentary films is certainly concerned with Atwater's political legacy -- he's considered by many to be the father of the modern Republican Party's school of dirty electoral tricks -- but it's also interested in the man as an individual. And what a charming, scary, funny, and frightening man he was -- all at the same time. Atwater valued winning at any cost, and he regretted that attitude on his deathbed, famously apologizing for the Willie Horton ad which he had secretly authorized, among many other things. This is a well-made, fascinating documentary; worth seeing.

I went into this movie not really expecting much. Yeah it won best picture in the animated category at this year's Academy Awards, but for some reason I get leary of animated films that are not done by Pixar. For the most part, with some various exceptions, I find them lame and corny, trying to hard to be funny and falling on it's face. Well, I got a little bit of that in this movie, starring Johnny Depp as the Lizard Rango, but as the movie went on, I actually started to get into it. Probably when he first arrives in the town of Dirt (Love that by the way given the context of the movie), the movie improved significantly and actually became really good. It's not the best animated film I've seen and there are a few fun bits, but for what it was I enjoyed it and the message it had at the end.

Hangin' out at Angie & Ted's place today, 'til I gotta go to work and found the James Garner western comedy to watch.

I've seen Support Your Local Sheriff plenty of times, and this one has virtually the same cast, but its a completely different set of characters, settin' & story. Not quite done with this one yet, but I can say I like ...Sheriff more.